Recent comments in /f/space

pmMeAllofIt t1_jb7iskw wrote

It's one image, with the Supernova's galaxy appearing in it 3 times, at 3 different moments in time. The duration was estimated using scans from Hubble last year. Believing it to be a type Ia supernova (which all have the same luminosity) allowed them to plug the numbers and figure out the precise "prescription" of the lens that galaxy in the foreground is creating. JWST confirmed it's a type Ia supernova, which means their numbers are accurate.
 Lensing is pretty well understood and they have amazing software to help them out.

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TravelinDan88 t1_jb7ieru wrote

There's a philosophical theory that we're all the same living being. For instance, right now I'm me, but in a past life I was my neighbor or I was Bill Gates, etc. Not really chronological past lives but parallel. The world is populated by a single life form repeated ad infinitum beside itself.

It's funky to ponder that while stoned.

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jeffwillden t1_jb79116 wrote

The galaxy drove to work, but took 3 different routes. One route had extra gravitational stop lights which caused it to arrive 320 days late. And another one 1000 days late. The fastest route was relatively direct though. We get to see all three in one picture.

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left_lane_camper t1_jb783ra wrote

It's fairly simple. In the absence of much pressure outside the rocket (which is the case when the rocket is at a suitably high altitude), the hot gasses escaping from the rocket simply keep expanding. For a deeper look as to why this occurs, you will want to look into the kinetic theory of gases.

They glow either because they are still quite hot (very near the rocket) or because they are high enough up that they are illuminated by the sun even when the sun is below the horizon from the ground.

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Chichachachi t1_jb72447 wrote

But why is it saying one was 320 days later and the other is 1000 days later? If it is just one image, how would we be able to know the time dilation to the precision of days of time difference? But also, James Webb was placed at the Lagrange point less than a year ago, so I guess we DO know the difference that light travelled to the degree of days.

The supernova event is 3.2 billion light years away. But we can actually tell that one lens delayed the light from one image by 320 days and the other by 1000 days. Incredible.

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